


Learning About Nick

by Hellokaelyn



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-09 20:34:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16456751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellokaelyn/pseuds/Hellokaelyn
Summary: Ellie learns more about Nick's high school years.





	Learning About Nick

**Author's Note:**

> Excuse the sucky title, I couldn't think of one!   
> And I have no idea where this idea even came from.

Good days were sometimes hard to come by when you worked as a federal agent. Paperwork was no joke but it was of course the cases that made things difficult. Either it be from overworking to solve it, or it was the emotional aspect.

For Ellie it was usually the emotional part. 

Except for today. They had just solved a big case the day before and in rare Gibbs form he had cleared it so they had the next two days off. 

Ellie  _ was _ going to spend the day at home catching up on her reading or maybe video chatting with either her mom or brothers, but Nick had come knocking on her door not too long after she woke up to drag her outside. She didn’t put up much of a fight, spending time with him sounded better than reading her books (which shocked the hell out of her when she first thought that).

They had been walking side by side occasionally bumping into each other, their hands touching. 

It was silent between them but not uncomfortable. 

Until she heard Nick’s name being shout. 

“Nick!” Ellie heard what sounded like two woman shout.

She barely had time to blink before two attractive woman a blonde and a brunette had practically jumped at Nick, who didn’t hesitate to pull the two girls into a hug and spin them around with a large grin on his face. 

Ellie felt her body stiffen and her stomach turn to knots. 

Who  _ were _ these girls?

“What’re you guys doing here?! I thought you two still lived in Miami?” Nick still had that grin on his face.

Both the woman had big smiles as well, there was warmth in their eyes as they looked at Nick and it made Ellie’s stomach even more unsettled. 

“We moved up here a couple of years ago.” The blonde said. “We had no idea you lived in the area too or we would have emailed you or something!” 

The brunette suddenly cleared her throat interrupting them, her eyes looking right at Ellie. “Are you going to introduce us or just let the poor girl stand there?”

Nick snapped his head around to look at Ellie, an apologetic look on his face. She tried to smile back to show him it was fine but she was pretty sure it came out more like a grimace. 

“Uh this is Ellie, we work together.” Ellie elbowed him. “Wha- Oh! And she’s a friend.”

_ Just a coworker and friend, that’s her. _

“Ellie this is Olivia-” He pointed to the blonde. “-and Charlotte-” The brunette smiled at her. “-but she prefers Charlie.”

“Nice to meet you.” Ellie gave them her polite smile, hoping they would buy it.

“You too!” Olivia grinned, hopping a little on the heels of her feet. 

“I went to high school with them.” Nick told her. 

“Hey!” Olivia pouted. “We were good friends no need to make us sound like acquaintances!” 

Ellie tried not to scoff. Yeah like she’d believe they were just ‘acquaintances’ anyway after that greeting. Oh god she needed to stop sounding so mean even if it wasn’t out loud, they were probably nice enough, right? She couldn’t let her stupid childish jealousy cloud her judgement. 

Nick chuckled. “Well excuse me.”

Charlie looked between them. “Okay maybe we should let you guys be-”

“What?!” Olivia pouted. “But we haven’t seen Nick in years!”

“Olivia.” Charlie gave her a look. “We’re disrupting their day.”

“You’re not-” Ellie quickly said without even thinking. She wanted them to go sure, but as much as she hated seeing them put a big smile on Nick’s face instead of her (she hopes this jealousy would go away soon), they seemed nice and they obviously made him happy. “We were just about to head to this little café and sit outside, you can join us.”

Nick looked at her with a soft look on his face. Ellie was too busy looking back at him to see Olivia and Charlie exchange looks.

“Let’s go!” Olivia said, right away beginning to hop away...literally. Ellie could at least admire the woman’s young spirit, at work she sees so many people have life bring them down but this woman was happy as could be.

Charlie had a fond smile on her face as she followed.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Nick whispered to her as they walked behind. 

Ellie let her hand brush against his. “Yes I did, you were happy to see them and I’m sure you’d want time to talk more.”

“Which I can do another time.” Nick pointed out. “This was our day-” Ellie had to try hard not to smile. “-We can always come up with a excuse and leave.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s fine Nick really.”

Ellie felt his hand lightly squeeze hers before he let go when they reached the tables outside the café.

She and Nick sat beside each other with the Charlie and Olivia across from them.

Fifteen minutes later Ellie found her face hurting from laughing so much. Charlie and Olivia had wasted no time in telling her stories of their high school days, she couldn’t help but be highly amused at teenage Nick who seemed to have no care for what other people had thought of him unlike most teenagers.

It didn’t escape Ellie’s notice that they were cutting someone out of the stories. All three of them avoided mentioning the other girl in these stories, Sofia. She knew Nick didn’t like talking about her, but by the look that sometimes flashed on the other two’s faces, they didn’t like talking about her either. She couldn’t blame them, losing anyone close to you especially at a young age wasn’t easy.

Nick’s phone ringing broke into the middle of conversation. He looked at the phone. “I’ll be right back, it’s Lucia.” 

Ellie bit the inside of her cheek, she was now alone with the two.

“So, Ellie-” Olivia grinned, a sparkle in her eye. “You and Nick-” She wiggled her eyebrows.

She felt her face heat up. 

Charlie snickered and swatted Olivia’s arm. “Don’t mind her. What she’s trying to say is, you like him don’t you?”

Ellie moaned and smacked a hand to her forehead. “Is it that obvious?!”

Charlie laughed loudly. “I figure we aren’t the first ones to figure it out?”

“No.” Ellie sighed.

Olivia squealed. “You two would be so cute!”

She shifted in her seat. She had been pretty sure Olivia and Nick had something once by the way Olivia looked at him, and if so she didn’t really feel comfortable discussing her feelings.

Charlie though being the observant person Ellie already learned her to be, noticed.

“Oh! Ellie, it’s not like that.” 

Olivia looked between them. “Like what?”

“She’s wondering if we ever went out with Nick-”

Olivia didn’t even give Charlie time to finish before she gagged. “Oh god no.”

Ellie raised an eyebrow. Well that was a reaction she didn’t see girls give when it came to Nick. “Uh...what?”

Charlie sighed. “Again what she means to say is, Nick isn’t our type.”

“Yup!” Olivia nodded, smirking. “Wrong equipment.”

She stared at them confused for a moment before it hit her.

“OH!” 

Charlie laughed. “Olivia and I are actually together, have been since high school.”

Ellie couldn’t help the “Aww” that slipped out, making both girls grin and share a fond look.

“It’s just, the way you two look at him made me think…” Ellie trailed off.

“That’s because he helped us a lot, he’s like...our sort of hero slash brother.” Olivia told her.

“Hero?” She leaned forward in her seat, what did Nick do for them?

Charlie looked behind Ellie to make sure Nick was still on the phone. “It’s actually because of him we had the courage to come out in high school instead of after graduation like we had planned.”

“We were scared of telling our families but we were absolutely terrified of coming out at school, the kids at our school weren’t the most friendly and could be cruel to anyone that was different in any way.” Olivia said. “I mean Nick was bullied in freshman year ‘cause he talked a little differently than everyone else, until he started joining the sports teams and showed everyone he wasn’t going to take their crap.”

Ellie couldn’t help but feel a little shocked. She always just assumed Nick was never bullied and always popular, she felt a twinge of guilt when she remembered getting into him a bit about not knowing how it felt when they had that case with Buckner. 

_ “You were a popular jock like Buckner, okay? You have no idea what it was like to be mocked and laughed at every day-” _

But now she knew Nick wasn’t always the popular jock.  _ Good job, Ellie _ .

“And..what did Nick do?”

Charlie smiled slightly. “He was angry for us, that we didn’t feel safe enough to come out and just  _ be _ like we wanted to so he came up with a plan. Nick decided to start a rumor that he was gay, which meant not only was he risking getting bullied again and or beat up by the other jocks, but he was risking looking like an ass for lying in the first place when people found out it wasn’t true.”

Ellie’s eyes widened a little. 

“Everyone was so focused on the rumor that when we did come out, no one really cared by then other than a few looks thrown our way...not only did it help us, but Nick’s rumor encouraged other kids to come out, we honestly thought they’d be upset when Nick finally confirmed that the rumor was false but the others were happy enough that they finally had it out in the open and didn’t have to hide anymore.” Olivia said. “No one in our school when we went there at least, had the courage to come out, that’s how vicious some of the kids could be.”

Charlie grabbed Olivia’s hand, giving it a squeeze. Ellie thought they looked cute together. “Nick went around to all the others after the rumor was burnt out to talk to them about it, he offered them all the same support and friendship he gave us.”

At that moment Nick finally came back to the table.

“Sorry, Lucia just need to rant about some stupid thing Amanda did in school.” He said rolling his eyes. “What were you ladies talking about?”

All three of them shared a look.

“Nothing.” Ellie said. “Just about the best places to shop around-”

Nick made a face. “Yeah forget I asked.

The three girls shared a grin. 

When they finally left, Ellie had two new numbers in her phone and two new friends.

Hours later when Ellie was on Nick’s couch, his head laying on her lap with an episode of Gilmore Girls (a secret love of his that she promised not to tease him about anymore) playing on the TV, she decided to say something.

“Nick?”

“Hmm?” 

“Charlie and Olivia told me about your freshman year….how you were bullied-”

Nick quickly sat up. “Ellie-”

“No..just..let me talk.” Ellie turned her body to face him. “I need to apologize for when we ran into Buckner on that case, and I said those things about you not knowing how being mocked and laughed at felt-”

“You don’t have to be sorry for that, Ellie. It was a while ago and it’s not like you knew my life story.”

“That’s the point, I didn’t know everything about your experiences so I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have just assumed all your years in high school were like that.”

Nick reached out and pulled her to him, making it so Ellie’s legs were over his own as she was almost on his lap. “There’s nothing to be sorry for, I promise.”

“But-”

He cupped her cheek, running his thumb down her cheek softly. “Don’t. It’s all in the past, just like I told you back then, you have to let that stuff go and get over it.”

Ellie sighed, leaning into his hand a little. 

“They uh...didn’t tell you anything else, did they?” Nick asked, looking a little nervous.

“No...no they didn’t.”

Ellie stared at him when he went back to focusing on the TV screen. 

Every time she thought back to what the girls told her, her heart warmed. 

She learned something new about him all the time but it seemed every new thing she learned made her only feel stronger for him. Nick had many sides to him, almost like a puzzle.

Ellie always did love puzzles.


End file.
